7.  The applicant was born in 1967 and lives in the village of Nadterechnoye, Chechnya.
8.  The facts of the case as submitted by the parties are summarised in section A below (paragraphs 9-40). A description of the documents submitted by the Government is contained in section B below (paragraphs 41-42).
9.  At the material time the applicant and his family lived in the village of Znamenskoye, in the Nadterechny District of Chechnya. They had an apartment in a block of flats at 19 Shosseynaya Street. The applicant’s family consisted of his father, Oleg Semenovich Mezhidov, born in 1938, his mother, Movlmat Lemayevna Mezhidova, born in 1940, his brother, Bislan Olegovich Mezhidov, born in 1969, and his two sisters, Aminat Olegovna Mezhidova, born in 1973, and Svetlana Olegovna Mezhidova, born in 1985.
10.  In early October 1999 the Russian Government launched a counter‑terrorist operation in the Chechen Republic.
11.  On 5 October 1999, between 7 and 9 p.m., the village of Znamenskoye came under fire. It appears that the applicant was absent from home at the time. His parents, brother and sisters tried to escape but were killed by a shell which burst in the courtyard of the building at 19 Shosseynaya Street.
12.  According to the applicant, the village was shelled by artillery positioned on the Terskiy mountain range, where Russian troops were stationed. In his submission, a total of five to six shells had been fired during the attack. He submitted a sketch map of the scene of the incident indicating the shell craters. According to him, the position of the craters clearly indicated that the shells could only have been fired from the Terskiy mountain range. The applicant also submitted statements by two witnesses who had testified that the village had been shelled from the Terskiy mountain range and that they had seen the Russian forces stationed there.
13.  According to the Government, the applicant’s family members died in an attack on the village of Znamenskoye carried out with unidentified firearms by unidentified men. They also suggested with reference to the information provided by the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia and the Chechen Department of the Federal Security Service that “the Mezhidovs [had been] killed by members of illegal armed formations”.
14.  On 24 November 1999 the Civil Registration Office of the Nadterechny District certified the deaths of the applicant’s relatives. The certificates stated that each of them had died of “multiple shrapnel wounds”. The date and the place of death were recorded as 5 October 1999, Znamenskoye.
15.  According to the applicant, the courts and administrative institutions in the Chechen Republic ceased functioning when the hostilities began.
16.  On 3 February 2000, when the local law-enforcement bodies became operational, the applicant asked the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office (прокуратура Надтеречного района) to investigate the deaths of his family members. The applicant submitted a copy of his application, which bears no stamp to show that it had been received by the authorities. In the applicant’s submission, no investigative measures were taken in connection with his application. Some time later he was informed by law-enforcement officials that on 5 October 1999 Znamenskoye had allegedly been shelled by Chechen fighters with 120 mm-calibre mortars.
17.  On 22 June 2000 the applicant applied to the Special Envoy of the Russian President in Chechnya for Rights and Freedoms (Специальный представитель Президента Российской Федерации по соблюдению прав и свобод человека в Чеченской Республике), complaining about the killing of his relatives and the lack of an effective investigation. The Envoy assured the applicant that he would take up his case and advised him to lodge another application with the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office.
18.  On 30 June 2000 the applicant again applied to the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office in writing. He restated the circumstances of his family members’ deaths and requested that an investigation be carried out. The applicant submitted a copy of his application, which bears no stamp to show that it had been received by the authorities. According to the Government, the applicant did not inform the law-enforcement authorities of the incident of 5 October 1999 until 3 July 2000.
19.  According to the applicant, at some point he himself searched for and found fragments of shells at the scene of the incident in Znamenskoye and delivered them to the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office. It appears that an official of the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office sent the fragments for an expert examination.
20.  On 9 August 2000 an expert examined thirty fragments collected at the scene of the incident in Znamenskoye and reported that they were pieces of large-calibre (122 mm and 152 mm) artillery shells. The applicant submitted a copy of this report. The Government made no comments as regards the results of the examination.
21.  On 17 November 2000 criminal proceedings in connection with the death of the applicants’ relatives were instituted under Article 105 § 2 of the Russian Criminal Code (murder of two or more persons committed by a generally dangerous method). The case file was assigned the number 28026.
22.  On 17 January 2001 the investigation was suspended, on the ground that it was not possible to establish who was responsible. This decision was set aside on 22 March 2001 and the proceedings were resumed.
23.  According to the Government, the applicant was granted the status of victim of a crime on 12 April 2001. They did not submit a copy of that decision.
24.  On 22 April 2001 the investigation was again adjourned.
25.  In a letter of 28 May 2001 the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office notified the applicant that the criminal proceedings in case no. 28026 had been suspended, as it was impossible to identify those responsible. The letter further stated that the search for culprits was being continued.
26.  It does not appear that any investigative activity took place between April 2001 and January 2005.
27.  On 13 October 2004 the present application was communicated to the Russian Government.
28.  On 19 January 2005 the criminal proceedings in case no. 28026 were re-opened, and then suspended on 19 February 2005 in the absence of those responsible.
29.  On 10 November 2005 the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office resumed the investigation, stating that the decision of 19 February 2005 by which the investigation had been adjourned had been premature, as a number of necessary investigative actions had not been taken. The applicant was informed in writing of the resumption of the investigation on the same date.
30.  On 10 December 2005 the investigation was suspended on the ground that it was not possible to establish the identity of the alleged perpetrators. The applicant was informed of this decision on the same date.
31.  On 11 September 2006 the Nadterechny prosecutor’s office resumed the proceedings in case no. 28026, referring to the investigating authorities’ failure to take a number of necessary investigative actions. The applicant was informed of this decision in a letter of 11 September 2006.
32.  In the period between 27 September and 3 October a number of decisions were taken granting the status of victim in case no. 28026 to several persons injured during the incident of 5 October 1999. When describing the circumstances of the incident, the decisions stated that “on 5 October 1999 approximately between 7 and 9 p.m. blocks of flats situated in Shosseynaya Street in the village of Znamenskoye [had come under fire] supposedly from federal artillery”.
33.  On 11 October 2006 the investigation was suspended, and the applicant was informed of that decision in writing on the same date.
34.  On 17 November 2006 the investigation was again re-opened.
35.  Referring to the information provided by the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Government submitted that a criminal investigation into the deaths of the applicant’s relatives as a result of an attack “with unidentified weapon by unidentified persons” had been opened on 17 November 2000 and then repeatedly suspended and resumed. In their memorandum of 27 December 2006 they submitted that it was pending and was being supervised by the Prosecutor General’s Office. According to the Government, although a considerable number of investigative measures had been taken, the investigating authorities were unable to identify the culprits.
36.  They further submitted that on 12 April 2001 the applicant had been granted the status of victim of a crime and questioned on the same date and subsequently on 2 January 2005 and 9 October 2006. The investigating authorities also questioned eighteen witnesses, including the applicant’s neighbours. According to the Government, some of the applicant’s neighbours testified that rebel fighters in possession of automatic firearms and grenade launchers had lived in the same block of flats as the Mezhidov family and that, before leaving on 5 October 1999, they had threatened the residents on account of their cooperation with the federal authorities. Shortly after the rebels’ departure there had been an explosion in the courtyard of the block of flats. The Government did not specify on what date witness statements had been obtained. According to the Government, it was impossible to find other witnesses in the case, but the search for them was currently under way.
37.  In the Government’s submission, at some point an expert examination of the fragments of shells found by the applicant at the scene of the incident was conducted. According to the results of that examination, it was impossible to establish the exact origin of the fragments in question. The Government did not specify the date of that examination or produce a copy of a document indicating its results. They also referred to witness statements of a certain “specialist” who “[had not] confirmed [the applicant’s] allegations that the fragments found by him had come from artillery shells”.
38.  According to the Government, on 5 February 2005 the investigating authorities ordered another expert examination so as to identify the fragments found during the inspection of the crime scene which had allegedly been carried out in the applicant’s presence and compare them with those delivered by him earlier. The Government did not specify the date on which the inspection had been carried out or submit a copy of the document indicating its results. On 26 April 2005, the date on which the Government submitted their second memorandum prior to the decision on the admissibility of the present application, the expert examination allegedly ordered on 5 February 2005 was still under way. The Government did not provide any information regarding the outcome of that examination in their memorandum of 27 December 2006 submitted after the decision on admissibility had been taken.
39.  The Government also stated that the applicant had refused to allow the investigating authorities to exhume the bodies of his relatives so that forensic experts could examine them, although that was crucial for establishing the circumstances of their deaths.
40.  They further submitted that the investigating authorities had sent a number of queries to various State bodies on 17 November and 17 December 2000, 22 and 28 March and 27 April 2001, 19 and 20 January and 2 February 2005 and taken other investigative measures, but did not specify what those measures had been. Also, on 20 January 2005 an investigative group was set up in connection with the case. An investigator from a military prosecutor’s office had been included in that group so as to verify whether federal military personnel had been involved in the alleged offence. On 14 November 2005 the investigating authorities requested the military prosecutor’s office of military unit 20102 (военная прокуратура – войсковая часть 20102) to establish which units of the Russian Ministry of Defence and of the Russian Ministry of the Interior had been stationed in the vicinity of the Terskiy mountain range on 5 October 1999. The reply which they received stated that it was impossible to provide the requested information. On 15 November 2005 the investigating authorities sent the same request to the command of the United Group Alignment (объединенная группа войск). The latter replied that they had no such information.
41.  In October 2004, when the application was communicated to them, the Government were invited to produce a copy of the investigation file in criminal case no. 28026 opened in connection with the incident of 5 October 1999 in the village of Znamenskoye. Relying on information obtained from the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Government replied that the investigation was in progress and that the disclosure of the documents would be in violation of Article 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure since the file contained information of a military nature and personal data concerning the witnesses. At the same time, the Government suggested that a Court delegation could have access to the file at the place where the preliminary investigation was being conducted, with the exception of “the documents [disclosing military information and personal data concerning the witnesses], and without the right to make copies of the case file and to transmit it to others”. In March 2005 the Court reiterated its request and suggested that Rule 33 § 3 of the Rules of Court be applied. In reply, the Government again refused to produce the investigation file for the aforementioned reasons.
42.  On 21 September 2006 the application was declared partly admissible. At that stage the Court once again invited the Government to submit the investigation file and to provide information concerning the progress of the investigation. In December 2006 the Government informed the Court of the latest dates on which the investigation had been suspended and reopened and produced several documents pertaining to the period after November 2005. Overall, the Government produced 44 documents running to a total of 52 pages from the case file, which, as could be ascertained from the page numbering, comprised at least 314 pages. The documents included:
(a)  several procedural decisions taken after November 2005 suspending and reopening the investigation in case no. 28026;
(b)  a number of investigators’ decisions taking up case no. 28026;
(c)  a number of decisions on transfer of case no. 28026 from one investigator to another;
(d)  decisions granting the status of victims in case no. 28026 to several persons who were injured during the incident of 5 October 1999 in Znamenskoye, but not to the applicant;
(e)  letters for the period between November 2005 and October 2006 informing the applicant and the other victims of the suspension and reopening of the criminal proceedings in case no. 28026.
The Government did not submit any other documents.